‘Sons of Anarchy’: Sex, Guns, Bikes, and Comic-Con

Who better to ride off into the Comic-Con sunset with than the gang from Sons of Anarchy? With SoA creatorKurt Sutter and cast members Katey Sagal, Ron Perlman, Charlie Hunman, Dayton Callie, Theo Rossi, Ryan Hurst, Mark Boone Jr., Tommy Flanagan, Kim Coates, and Maggie Siff on hand, all talk turned to sex, guns, and bikes in Hall H on Sunday.

Sutter and the gang kicked off their panel with a thrilling preview of the upcoming Season 5 that included (much to the delight of the female audience members) scenes of a smoldering Hunnam. However, it must be noted that it was up-and-comer Rossi who received the most attention (and questions) from female fans during the panel. Hunnam took his heartthrob loss gracefully, though there was some joking that Rossi had actually paid the audience to cat-call him.

Since it wouldn’t be an SoA panel without some profane candor from Sutter, the outspoken EP told the crowd that missing from the montage was a scene that, as Sutter delicately put it, features “My wife [Sagal] getting f**ked from behind by Jimmy Smits.” (Smits, along with Joel McHale and Lost‘s Harold Perrineau will join SoA in Season 5.)

While Sutter didn’t sugarcoat much during the lively, very TV-MA-friendly SoA panel, he played coy when it came to topics like a John Teller flashback episode. He said that “flashbacks aren’t really a part of their show,” but he has “spoken to the network about doing some sort of look back at the formation of the club.”

As for the overall arc of season 5, Sutter said that this will be the season of President Jax. “This is the season about Jax at the head of that table, and what kind of leader he will become,” Sutter told the crowd of thousands in Hall H. “It’s answering the question of, ‘Can you be the leader of an outlaw table and not become a Clay? If you don’t become a Clay, do you turn into a John Teller?’ Jax will have to make tough decisions, and we’ll see at the end of the season what kind of leader he’ll become.”

Hunnam’s co-stars provided a little more insight as to how their characters will respond to Jax being President this year. Flanagan told the crowd that Chibs “still will have loyalties to Clay”, but his overall allegiance is to Jax. And speaking of allegiances to Jax, when asked why Tara still sticks with him despite his heavy baggage, Hunnan joked, “Great abs and an 8-inch c**k.” Siff replied with a gentler, “Because he’s lovely, and they’re high school sweethearts. She can’t walk away from it.”

Clay, whose life was (unjustly) spared at the end of last season to maintain a secret CIA investigation, will have a tough time adjusting to his demotion. “Clay takes orders form no one,” Perlman said. “He lets no one else set the agenda.” Perlman (who got another SDCC shout-out from a fan for his sweet Make-A-Wish fulfillment for a young Hellboy fan), added, “In season five, everything he has worked for his entire life has been taken from him. He’s wife-less, President-less, [and] he’s lost the trust of his family. He starts to wonder, ‘Why the f**k would you keep me alive?'”

Sutter and his cast offered additional insight to some of the other dynamics in the group, including Gemma and Tara (“There’s not a linear thread this season. She loves Tara very much, but she’s threatened that she might be taking over Gemma’s position,” said Sagal); Tig and Clay (“[Their relationship] is on the rocks,” Coates revealed, “Tig is a wild-card…[it’s] really, really intense”); Opie (“[He] has a very strong desire to have a normal family, and he struggles to maintain that. He has a big heart, but it keeps getting ripped out,” said Hurst”); and ‘Juice’ (Rossi said of his character, “He’s trying to act as if everything is okay, but what’s inside of him and what he’s hiding makes it difficult to do that.”)

Then, of course, there was that one thing everybody really wanted to know: Who is the worst motorcycle rider? The unanimous vote went to Perlman, who didn’t seem to mind the teasing. As Hunnam explained, “He just falls off. A lot.”

The new season of Sons of Anarchy begins on Tuesday, September 11 on FX.